Thanks to supergeek17 for beta reading.
A day or so later…
As soon as the cabdriver had set her suitcases down and returned to his cab, Kate shut the door quickly and smiled. She grabbed her luggage and ran up the front path and into the house. "Kagerou I'm home!" she called as she dropped the suitcases by the front door. "Where are you? Don't I get a welcome home party or something?"
She received no answer, nor did she see Kagerou peeking out from around a corner, so Kate wandered around her house, calling his name. When she got to the kitchen, she froze. The irreparable oven that her landlord had left in the kitchen when she moved in, which turned into extra counter space with the addition of a piece of fiberglass from a friend's home improvement project, was gone. "Kagerou, get in here right now!" Kate bellowed over her shoulder. "Where the heck is the other oven?!"
Finally, Kagerou's smooth voice hit her ears, from behind her: "You know as well as I do that it didn't work, so I found a better use for it."
"Kagerou, that wasn't my oven—it belonged to the landlord!" Kate snapped, kneeling to examine where the wires connecting the plug to the missing oven were poking out of the wall. "What on earth did you do—" Kate stood and turned around, freezing and her jaw dropping open slightly. She vaguely felt her purse slip off her shoulder.
Somehow, in the two weeks she'd been gone, the knee high robot she'd left behind was now a few inches taller than her, making him about five feet eight. He offered her a cheeky grin as he caught her purse and laid it on the counter. "As I said, I found a far better use for it.
Kate continued to stare as a human-male-sized Kagerou walked around her kitchen as easily as if he did so every day. She let her eyes wander over his whole frame, wondering how her cute little robot housemate had managed to use her broken-down oven to become so… well, so ungodly sexy. Her eyes widened and she turned her head away, embarrassed by the thought. "You know you could have warned me you were going to do something like that," she chastised, still not looking in his direction.
"I thought it would be more fun to surprise you," Kagerou smoothly replied, perching on the counter and digging her passport out of her purse.
"Yeah well, you certainly managed to accomplish that," Kate informed him, working the passport out of his hands and tossing it in a drawer. "Oh, and I still think you would look better without that scanner over your eye."
Kagerou looked up from flipping through her digital camera photos and smirked slightly as the scanner retracted into his helmet. "What are you smirking about?" Kate asked.
"Oh, nothing," Kagerou replied smoothly as he went back to the pictures. "Happy you made it home in one piece."
---
Several hours later, at almost two in the morning, Kate was woken as the bed moved and shifted slightly. "Nahhh, not on the bed, Becky, she mumbled through a thick haze of sleep, turning to look over her shoulder. "Oh hi, Kagerou."
Kagerou sat, almost shyly on the edge of her bed. "Hello, Kate," he said quietly, twiddling his thumbs.
"Another nightmare?" she asked softly.
"Yeah..." he admitted. "…If I'm not little and cute, can I still get away with sleeping in here?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure," Kate replied, scooting over slightly. "But I don't think I can still hold you the way I could when you were little."
"That's okay—I can hold onto you now," he said, laying down behind her and wrapping his arm around her. "…If you don't mind, that is."
Kate patted his hand reassuringly. "I don't mind at all," she answered.
---
The next morning…
Kate woke up slowly… and with a small, pleased grin on her face. Sometime late last night, she'd fully admitted to herself that she'd grown attached to the not-so-little-anymore booger that was Kagerou. Of course, "attached" went from letting him eat her computer for a body to sleeping in her bed when he had nightmares to suddenly realizing damn, he was good looking now that he was typical human male sized.
You've lost your mind, Katherine, Kate scolded herself. He's a robot—you're getting overly emotionally attached to a walking talking version of your laptop…. But he's such a handsome, attractive robot, not to mention smart, kind…
And so the dialogue began again. Kate tried to think of something else to silence the voices. Of course, just to spite her, her mind instantly took her back to when she first saw Kagerou's body upgrade, him being able to look her in the eyes without standing on something tall, or her coming down to his level, and her sudden instinct to throw herself into his arms a la cheesy romance novel.
Was it so wrong for her to have such a want when it came to a robot? Ehh, what did it matter? She was here, healthy and happy, and that was good enough for the time being.
Content with her conclusion, Kate started to drift off again, but her mind wasn't done yet. Her eyes drifted open as she recalled something else: Last night… when he came into my room… his scanner wasn't down like it normally would have been. Even over the course of the two weeks she'd been gone, that was still his subconscious way of saying that not all was well with him. Did that mean that—?
Kagerou slid his hand out of hers and gently brushed it over her arm, bringing her out of her thoughts and running a finger of pleasured chills down her spine. "For looking like you're still asleep, your mind is absolutely racing. What are you thinking about?" Kagerou asked.
Kate glanced over her shoulder at him, dropping her head back to the pillow when she saw that the scanner was down over his eye. "What, you can't just read my mind with that thing?" she asked, half teasing.
"I could make a few guesses based on heart rate and such," Kagerou replied smoothly, "but I abhor guessing."
When she didn't hear Kagerou ask what she'd snorted in the bathroom to make her heart spontaneously stop, her mind started to reel—if he could tell that she was thinking, could he sense the tell-tale pheromones that screamed that she was becoming more and more attracted to him? "Just about the fact that whenever you have nightmares or are uncomfortable for any reason, that stupid scanner is always down over your eye and it wasn't when you came in here last night," she told him.
"Truthfully," Kagerou began after a brief pause, "the nightmares haven't been bothering me as much—once you've seen the exact same thing every night for over a month, you get desensitized, y'know? The truth is… I really did have a nightmare, but I really just wanted an excuse to come in here. I missed you and wanted to be close to you."
"You really missed me that much?" Kate asked softly, turning to face him and cursing her heart for racing so.
"Yes," he confirmed. "And please, Kate—" her heart started pounding double time when he called her by name—"don't panic so much about what I can read and see with this scanner." As he spoke, the scanner retracted into his helmet again; he hesitated a moment, then impulsively added, "If I'm interpreting what the scanner is picking up and what I'm feeling correctly, then… I feel—"
They both jumped when the phone next to the bed started to ring. Fighting off a strong urge to take a blowtorch to the phone, Kate sat up and snatched the receiver from the charger. "Hello?" she muttered, irritated as all get out, into the mouth piece.
"K-Katie?" a woman rasped into the phone.
There was only one person in the world whom Kate allowed to call her "Katie" and live to tell the tale—"Rachel? Is that you?" Kate asked into her end of the line. "What's wrong with your voice?"
"Katie, … there was an accident at work—the whole building collapsed," Rachel gasped. The sound of debris raining down in the background confirmed her words. "Tell Mom and Daniel I love them if I don't get out of this mess alive."
Once again, Kate didn't hear Kagerou ask what she'd taken to make her heart stop on a dime, even though she could feel it happening. "Rachel, what's going on?" she asked, trying to keep her voice soothing.
"I don't know…" Rachel answered.
"Well, c-can you get out?" Kate asked, slipping out of bed and starting pace the room.
"I can't," Rachel gasped. "My leg is pinned under a damn support beam or something and it's raining debris."
"Just—just stay calm, Rachel," Kate soothed, feeling panic and bile rising up in her throat. "I'm sure rescue workers will get there soon. Where are you?"
"I don't know!" Rachel wailed, making Kate jerk the phone from her ear for a beat. "I was in my office when the floor gave out. I'm not sure how many floors I fell." Her voice softened, and bitter tears entered her voice. "I hurt so bad, Katie… I just want it to stop. Please, Katie, make it stop…"
"Just hang in there, Rachel," Kate whispered, trying not to choke on her own tears. "I'll call the police and let them know you're in there, okay?"
"O-okay," Rachel sniffled. "If I don't make it out, you'll let Mom and Daniel know I love them, right? Tell Daniel I always believed—holy shit!" Rachel was suddenly very, very silent.
"Rachel? Rachel?! What's going on?" Kate half shrieked into phone.
"There is… a freaking huge… mechanical dog… and its coming right for me," Rachel slowly announced.
Kate was quickly trying to figure out how much pain her sister would have to be in to become that delusional when a third voice inadvertently joined the conversation: "It's alright—I'm with the Brave Police, and I'm going to get you out of here."
Kate sighed in relief. Admittedly, "Brave Police" was a group about which she knew very little, but based on a few news reports, she felt very comfortable that her little sister was in good hands.
"Guess I am going to make it out of here after all," Rachel chuckled into the phone. "I'll have someone call you and let you know what hospital I'm being taken to once I'm out—or I'll call you if they'll let me."
"Okay, I'll—" Kate stopped when she heard a loud rumble and Rachel scream. "Rachel? Rachel, what happened? Rachel, answer me, damnit!" Kate cried into the phone, but the line was completely dead.
Shaking and fighting back tears, Kate tried to quell the shaking in her hands long enough to dial the phone.
"Shh…" Kagerou soothed, coming over and laying a hand on her shoulder. "Just take a deep breath and try to calm yourself."
"But—but my—my sis-sister! She—" was all Kate could get out before Kagerou gently hushed her.
"I know," he whispered. "I could hear everything—super sensitive hearing."
Whimpering, Kate wrapped her arms around him, burying her face against his chest. She could feel Kagerou stiffen under the touch, but slowly start to relax—at least enough to lightly wrap his arms around her shoulders.
Sniffling slightly, Kate dialed her mother, still leaning, overwhelmed, into Kagerou's chest. The call seemed to take forever to connect…
"Hello?" her mother, Roslyn, answered. Roslyn was a woman about as unbreakable as a sequoia tree; now her voice cracked and sounded warped and tear-filled.
"Mom… it's Kate," she whispered into the receiver, willing herself not to break down again.
"Oh, Kate, you still don't have cable—you haven't heard have you?" Roslyn cried.
"Yeah, I have," Kate slowly replied. "Rachel called me—"
"She called you!?" Roslyn wailed into the phone, cutting her off. "Is she alright?"
"I—I don't know," Kate stammered. "I was on the phone with her when one of the rescue workers got there, but then it sounded like something collapsed and I don't know if her phone was damaged or…" An awkward pause filled both ends of the line. "Do you want me to come over there?"
"No—I'm going to head to the hospital," Roslyn replied, her voice indicating the return of her inner strength. "I'm sure after that explosion they'll be glad to have every nurse available. Your brother will hear about this and panic, and you're the one he'll call. If he can't get a hold of anyone he'll come back to find out what's going on. I can't lose two children in one day—you have to make sure he doesn't come anywhere near here. I'll call you the second I find out anything." Without waiting for her daughter's reply, she hung up.
As soon as she hung up the phone on her end, Kate curled back into Kagerou's arms. "I know I was upset about you eating the stove without asking me first," she whispered, "but now I'm really glad you did."
"So am I," Kagerou replied simply, letting her cry herself to sleep.
